The company behind the effort to bring an exotic dance club to downtown Milwaukee is going before the city's licenses committee on Friday, and it wants people to know — so much so that it has taken out newspaper and radio ads touting the meeting.

It will be the third time that an application for Silk East will be heard before the city committee that makes recommendations on tavern and restaurant licenses. The club's proposed location is 730 N. Old World 3rd St. Each time the application has gone before the committee, there has been opposition from neighborhood businesses and business operators. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article(66)

Cullen, who joined the station in 1997 after a stint on the WISN-TV (Channel 12) assignment desk, is survived by his wife, Pam, four children and his first grandchild, born last month.| Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

The entire tour for her heavy metal band Wicked Wisdom has been canceled, according to the venue, due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, with tentative plans for a 2014 tour behind new music. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

They've got you alone in the dark — no wonder there are so many horror movies getting special runs in theaters in October.

'Blacula' is back

The rare combination of vampire and blaxploitation movie that is "Blacula" awaits at the Times Cinema, 5906 W. Vliet St., where the 1972 cult classic is showing at midnight Friday. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

"The Fifth Estate" has three big jobs to do: Portray the general chaos of the Internet; explain the history of WikiLeaks and the release of military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning; and shed some light on the personality and motivations of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

It succeeds completely with the first, as the film captures the just-barely-in-control Wild West feel of the online universe with a nervous, twitchy excitement. But that success costs the film some clarity with its second job. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

No hibernating at UWM

The 2013 Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival (see separate story on Page 6E), takes over the UWM Union Theatre this weekend. After the festival, free screenings at the theater, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., run the gamut — and the first two are sponsored by the festival. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

DUE OUT TUESDAY

THE CONJURING (Warner) A pair of demonologists investigate a family's farmhouse for malevolent spirits and find more than their share. Based on a real case by the couple who later became famous for investigating the "Amityville Horror," director James Wan's creepy horror movie relies on restraint, finding its fear factor in the suggested and the unseen rather than the gory and grotesque. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the ghostbusters. (R; violence, terror) ★★★ | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

Here's a rundown. Except where noted, tickets for screenings Friday through Sunday are $9, $7 for students, seniors and members of the UWM community. Festival passes and single-showing can be purchased in advance online at arts.uwm.edu/lgbtfilm. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

Films from other countries are not about robots or superheroes, in part because many countries lack the financial and technical infrastructure to make them. While Hollywood wastes (our) time and (its) money creating CGI fantasies, films from abroad are often personal stories fraught with political subtext.

And so it is with "Wadjda," about a little girl who wants a bicycle in the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. Even more remarkable than the fact that "Wadjda" is the first feature film shot completely in Saudi Arabia is that director Haifaa Al Mansour is a woman and had to work out of sight from inside a van while making it. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

For a steakhouse, pastry chef Kurt Fogle wanted to create a dessert based on an American classic. For the s’mores at Carnevor, SURG Restaurants pastry chef Kurt Fogle set out to capture the treat’s magic.

I watched my dining companion take one bite of the s'mores dessert at Carnevor and then another. Something clearly was going on; he was at the table, but his mind was elsewhere.

The dessert turned back the years to Boy Scouts, he said, and then rushed forward again until he was sitting around fires with friends. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

When I look at Tara Bogart’s new series of portraits, I expect Lena Dunham to whip around and utter something awkward, self-important, hilarious and so impossibly self-possessed that you hate her a little and admire her a lot.

Bogart’s series may be titled “A Modern Hair Study,” but it is less a look at locks than an exploration of what it means to be a woman and in her 20s just now and, to some extent, an art school student in Milwaukee, too. That’s a lot to accomplish in a series of portraits where we don’t see any faces. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(3)

We associate "stretch marks" with rapid growth, which is one of the reasons they provide an apt title for what UPROOTED Theatre — still only 4 years old — is calling a "theater fête": Readings of six new plays, each presented twice during the next three weeks at Next Act Theatre's performing space.

In addition to commemorating the growth of UPROOTED since its 2009 birth, "Stretch MARKS" also honors the recently deceased Sally Marks, who was a child actor in Hollywood in the 1930s before returning to the stage late in life in Milwaukee. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Article

Tonight the Historic Pabst Brewery is hosting a Roaring '20s party at 9 p.m. The event will feature live music from The Newlybreds and 4th Street Elevator. There also willbe roaming thespians doing integrated dance, theater and comedy throughout the night. Be sure to dress up in your finest 20th-century attire. Cost is $5.

Get yourself over to Bad Genie for Red Bull's "Play & Destory" iPod battle party starting at 8 p.m. Sixteen iPod DJs from Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will compete across a variety of "battle-gories." Guest emcee DJ Kid Cutup will spin after the event until bar close. | Oct. 17, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)